S. Shlomo Holdings Ltd. (TASE:SHLD), controlled by Shlomo Shmelzer, is the first company to obtain a parallel vehicle import license from the Ministry of Transport. The company did not disclose which models are covered by the license, however industry sources believe that they are mostly popular cars, not luxury models.
The license was granted to Shlomo Vehicle Importers (2000) Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shlomo Holdings, Israel's largest car leasing and rental company. It is the Israeli franchisee of Sixt AG (DAX: SIX2).
Over the past few years, Shlomo Holdings has built itself up as a multi-sector vehicle company, with an infrastructure to become a car importer at very short notice. The company owns a large vehicle delivery lot at Nir Zvi, in which it invested tens of millions of shekels, and it has an independent vehicle delivery fleet, garages, and spare parts import business. It is also the largest car buyer in Israel, purchasing more than 10,000 new cars a year.
Shlomo Holdings has direct access to vehicles sources in Europe for parallel imports, and is a dealer for Japan's Suzuki and Honda, and for China's Chery, as well as other carmakers in the European markets where the company operates.
However, industry sources believe that Shmeltzer will initially avoid a direct and open confrontation with Israel's authorized vehicle importers which deliver cars, mostly Japanese and South Korean models, to Shlomo Holdings. The company will likely initially import vehicles from the US for the middle and high-end markets.
Shlomo Holdings' share price rose 3.1% by mid-afternoon to NIS 18.79, giving a market cap of NIS 373 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 13, 2010
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